the mere mention of stephen king's titles evokes fear. do people ever say to you when they meet you, you know, i thought maybe i might be scared of you? all the time, right? >> sure. a lot of people think they're scared of me but i'm civilized. >> right here please. >> reporter: the best selling author built a career on frightening people. he sees things in ways others don't. so years before most authors even thought about e-books, king published a novello online. it shocked the industry. and got him a lot of attention. >> i got on the cover of "time" magazine and for once in my life noticed by the guys in the suits and ties. they would say, how did that work? how did that sell? they were fascinated by the business aspect. >> reporter: that was a decade ago. today, the e-book industry is on fire. amazon telling more e-books than hardcovers making up more than 8% of publishing revenue, up from 3% a year ago. on track to hit 50% by 2015. some studies show when people own e-book readers like kindles and ipads they buy more and read more. the